I'm not surprised. I've always thought Ashley's footwork was her biggest shortcoming and unfortunately for her Malaguena really lays it bare.

yes, the music is speeding up and she is skating painfully slowly. That footwork is easily the worst part of the program and it comes right at the end.

None of the ladies this year have actually mastered the footwork sequenece to me except Akikko. She flies across the ice with spot on musicality, reminicent of Sasha's fantastic Rachmaninoff and Dark Eyes sequences. Rachel's step sequecnes are also pretty good, but in my book Akiko was head and shoulders above anyone I have seen this season.

Ashley still has a tendency to pike over when building up speed, and pumping her butt. It works against her when trying to do footwork which doesn't look as good when the body is in that position. Sometimes she remembers and straightens up, and sometimes she reverts. It's like the two footing the jumps-sometimes she falls back into the old bad habits.

What were Miki's sympathy points for exactly though? Becoming anorexic almost and still being with that goon Morozov professionaly and probably romantically? Beyond that I cant see where the sympathy would be unless I missed something. She wasnt injured or anything. I think it was more like reputation points than sympathy. Atleast it wasnt of Chantastic proportions but I was not impressed nonetheless.

What were Miki's sympathy points for exactly though? Becoming anorexic almost and still being with that goon Morozov professionaly and probably romantically? Beyond that I cant see where the sympathy would be unless I missed something. She wasnt injured or anything. I think it was more like reputation points than sympathy.

Miki was in a bad collision with another skater 3 days (I think) before the competition started and in the process her back was injured (there was a very noticeable bandage on her back that you could easily see in both the SP and the LP). When she finished her LP, she was practically limping off the ice in pain with a grimace on her face. She maintained her composure so well though! IMO Ando only beat Suzuki in the jump department. Everything else that Akiko did was better and had I been judging, I would have given her the win, but Akiko has never been a judges' favorite. I like them both though and I'm a fan of all 3 ladies who landed on the podium, so all is pretty good I think.

What were Miki's sympathy points for exactly though? Becoming anorexic almost and still being with that goon Morozov professionaly and probably romantically? Beyond that I cant see where the sympathy would be unless I missed something. She wasnt injured or anything. I think it was more like reputation points than sympathy. Atleast it wasnt of Chantastic proportions but I was not impressed nonetheless.

Have you taken a good look at Qing Pang, pangtongfan?

Miki's not anorexic, and she injured herself before Cup of Russia, as museksk8r explained.

I don't think Miki was given any sympathy gift. She was slow and tentative in her program and it reflect in her score and the judges buried her in 5th place. There are 4 skaters a head of her. If anything, it was Akiko who didn't take the gold that was ready to handed to her by making major mistakes poping a lutz (lost 6.6 point), single a 2lo jump (lost 1.0 point) and underroating a salcow (another 2 points). In all Akiko give up 8-9 points on jump elements alone and Miki beat her barely, with just 2 points.
Akiko was also given almost 3 points PCS buffer from the judges. In all the podium finish is fair and square. Gold has been lost with less than 1.0 point in FS, so if you missed a jump, you lost major points and all skaters know about that.

Back to Miki, she does looks a little thinner than the past 2-3 years. Not sure its anorexic or not, most asian ladies has slim frame and Miki has more stronger jaw and wider face structure than skater like Mao or Calrolina, so it does look little out of propertion and look painlly skinny. I don't think most aneroxic ladies will have enough strength to land the jumps. When you are aneroxic, you lose the bone mass too and more porne to bone injury.

yes, the music is speeding up and she is skating painfully slowly. That footwork is easily the worst part of the program and it comes right at the end.

None of the ladies this year have actually mastered the footwork sequenece to me except Akikko. She flies across the ice with spot on musicality, reminicent of Sasha's fantastic Rachmaninoff and Dark Eyes sequences. Rachel's step sequecnes are also pretty good, but in my book Akiko was head and shoulders above anyone I have seen this season.

This could be an issue of stamina. It would make sense since it is at the end of the program. Hopefully with more training she'll be able to increase speed and clean it up a bit.